Heaven's Anything But Boring!...Continued from page 1
Roger W. Thomas
John's vision pictures heaven as a huge bustling city with a wall 200 hundred feet thick surrounding it. A wall was what made a bunch of houses a city in the ancient world. The vast metropolis stretched on for nearly 1500 miles in every direction, including height. The puny little Sears Tower would hardly be visible from the top of the New Jerusalem's skyscrapers. The new city's vast network of streets and avenues would sprawl as far as from the Atlantic seacoast to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, from Florida's Keys to the lakes of Minnesota.
And it's totally safe to explore. That's the poetic significance of much of the description. All of the negative things are eliminated. We used to live in a large city with many neighborhoods too dangerous to walk or drive alone in at night, including areas just a few blocks from our house. But not in the New Jerusalem! No more death, no more pain, no more crying, no more sea! To the ancients, the sea was the ultimate symbol of danger and destruction. Too many people who ventured out on the sea never came back. No more sea! All of the mean hate-filled people who ruin life for everyone else will be gone once and for all. Heaven's streets will be clean and safe enough for the most innocent child to walk and explore.
I suspect that John's vision is really like a blind man describing a rainbow or two farmers who have spent their entire lives on the prairie's of northeast Missouri trying to talk about a mountain vista or the vast glaciers of Alaska. Heaven will be beyond our wildest imaginations ? streets of gold, gates of pearl, foundations constructed of gemstones and precious jewels. Can you imagine the surprises and delights around every corner? And that's just inside the city walls. Imagine the rest of the new world beyond. Boring ? never!
Heaven will provide far too many places to explore and adventures to discover to be boring. And there will be far too much to do. I know that the common caricature of heaven is of cute little cherubs with glowing halos above their heads and discretely placed banners draped around their chubby little bodies floating on billowy clouds while serenely strumming on harps. I hope I don't burst anyone's bubbles, but that's not the Bible's version of heaven. We will have too much too do in heaven to lounge around all day on clouds.
e+22:3">Revelation 22:3 says, "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him." Elsewhere John writes of the new songs that will be written and sung on the new earth (
5:9,
14:3). Jesus taught in his parables of judgment about the master who rewards his faithful servants with greater duties and larger responsibilities (
Matt. 25:21,
23). The picture suggests a lot to do and take care of. In the parable of the pounds, the king rewards the servant who made ten pounds by placing him in authority over ten cities, and the servant who made five pounds with authority over five cities (
Luke 19:17-19). Their reward consists not in idle rest but worthwhile service. Far from sitting on clouds, we will have more to do in heaven than we can possibly imagine. Does being the mayor ten cities sound boring? (Cf. An article on heaven by Anthony Hoekema in the September 20. 1985, issue of Christianity Today.)